Abstract [en]

Having short delivery lead times has been deemed as a major order winner and a way of creating short term competitive advantages. Short delivery lead times are also important when trying to reduce inventory levels. This study of 136 randomly selected Swedish commercial printing houses, investigates the differences between digital printers and conventional printers with respect to the importance of providing short delivery times and having close geographic distances to customers. The study concludes that printing houses, using digital printing, arc active mostly on a regional market, while printing houses using conventional printing are active mainly oil a national market. Further, digital printing contributes to significantly shorter delivery times, which, in general, are deemed important to be kept short. Nevertheless, there are indications of a larger gap, regarding delivery times, between importance and perceived Customer satisfaction among digital printers than among conventional printers.